Invasion of the Body Snatchers
One
individual related in an e-mail about being concerned with his/her spiritual condition.
Although this person did go through periods of saying prayers, reading the Qur'an,
and so on, nonetheless, there also would be times when the individual would lose interest
in such things. In addition, when the person was in this condition, this individual also
lost interest in friends, family and other aspects of life.
As far as
your comments are concerned with respect to how you feel about your spiritual state, there
are, perhaps, a few things which should be kept in mind. What follows may have a bit of a
science fiction flavor to it, but I trust that, when all is said and done, the moral, so
to speak, of the story still will be evident, God willing, vis-a-vis spirituality.
Years ago,
in the Fifties, the Director, Don Siegal, did a movie called the Invasion of the Body
Snatchers. It starred Kevin McCarthy and, I believe, Dana Wynter.
About twenty
years, or so, ago, a remake of this movie was made. It featured a couple of Canadian
actors - Donald Sutherland and Art Hindle, and the picture also starred Jeff Goldblum,
Brooke Adams, Angela - or was it Veronica - Cartwright and Leonard Nimoy.
In any
event, the basic premise of the story was, and is, this. From deep space comes a form of
life which somehow drifts to Earth and lands in the form of spores which take root and
begin to go through their life-cycle.
Part of the
life cycle of these alien spores is the capacity to latch onto sentient, conscious,
intelligent life forms of Earth and withdraw the life force, bodily characteristics,
intelligence, personality, and consciousness of Earth creatures - especially human beings
- and assume the identities of those whom they 'take over'. This transfer and
transformation would take place when the spores have grown into plants that gave rise to
huge pods out of which the pseudo-human would arise when the pod was placed near to a
human being and when the intended individual target was asleep.
These alien
duplicates were identical to the bodies they snatched in every way but one. The
body-doubles had no emotions.
The way the
aliens saw things is that they were the solution to human problems. They felt that most,
if not all, of the turmoil and tragedy of the world are due to the way in which emotions
adversely affected life. Since there would be no jealousy, envy, hatred, selfishness,
greed, pride and so on when the alien life forms assumed human identities, then 'human
beings' finally would have peace and harmony.
The human
beings who stumbled onto the invasion conspiracy, however, have a different read on the
ontological challenge. According to them, if there were no emotions, then there would be
no love or passion connected to life either, and they believed that these emotions went to
the heart of what it was to be a human being.
For the
human heroes and heroines of the film, the "offer" of getting inner and worldly
peace in exchange for losing the essence or soul of what made human beings human was just
too high a price to pay and that humanity would just have to try to work, or stumble,
toward peace and harmony in some other way. Naturally, this differing point of view of the
humans led to a life and death struggle with the would-be alien antagonists and, therein,
lay the dynamics of the story as it unfolded during the course of the picture.
In the
original movie, the character played by Kevin McCarthy is finally able, with a bit of the
coincidental luck of dramatic license, to convince the authorities that he is not crazy
and that the story he has been recounting is the truth and that, consequently, humanity is
in imminent peril of destruction should the invasion of the body snatchers be allowed to
continue unchecked. However, in the remake of the movie, the end of the story is much more
ominous, and the movie-goer is left in an ambiguous state concerning whether or not
humanity is going to survive the invasion.
What has all
of this got to do with your unhappiness concerning your spiritual state and your feeling
of emptiness and lack of emotion concerning family, friends and life? You must realize
that you are being invaded by, among other things, a body snatcher known as
"nafs".
Spiritually,
you are drifting between sleep and wakefulness. While you are asleep, nafs latches onto
your being and begins its process of transforming you according to its pre-programmed
agenda.
Like the
alien forms of life in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the nafs is offering you a form
of peace - the peace that comes from not struggling to realize that which is most
essential to the human being, namely spiritual love and passion for things Divine. Just as
in the movie, however, the price which must be paid for accepting this offer is the lost
of that which actually defines your human nature and spiritual potential.
The
deadening of your feelings for your family, your friends, your life are signs of the kind
of peace nafs has in mind for you. However, since the transformation process has not been
completed, you, by the grace of God, snap out of this state from time to time.
This process
of snapping out of it takes place when there is some degree of spiritual awakening which
comes to you through whatever means - whether in the form of prayers, zikr, fasting,
Fatiha, or in some other way. To the extent you are awake in this sense, then the
transformation process cannot proceed - in fact, it is forced to reverse course.
On the other
hand, when, spiritually speaking, you go back to sleep, the process of imperialism and
colonialism starts up again and seeks to take over more and more of your humanity through
guile and, if necessary, force. This battle takes place in your heart or qalb.
One of the
meanings of "qalb" in Arabic is "that which turns". The heart has the
capacity to turn, on the one hand, toward the nafs, dunya and Iblis, or, on the other
hand, the qalb can turn toward the realm of spirit and Divinity.
When the
qalb turns, by the grace of God, toward the spirit and Divinity, it begins to wake up.
When the qalb turns toward nafs and so on, it goes to sleep.
Sleeping,
spiritually speaking, aides the cause of nafs, dunya and Iblis. Awakening invigorates the
quest of spirituality.
What you
must come to understand from the bottom of your soul is that you are being forcefully
invaded by an alien presence within you. This is not science fiction, it is the truth.
The shaykh
is playing the part of Kevin McCarthy and trying to warn people of the imminent danger to
which their spiritual lives are being exposed as a result of this invasion of the body
snatchers. Of course, few people believe this individual and consider the words of the
shaykh as the rants and ravings of a mad person or a possessed individual.
Moreover,
because there are many "people" in the world who already have become transformed
and, therefore, no longer are human, in any essential sense, but, now, are alien, in
nature, these allies of the invaders help to work against any attempts which are designed
to help people awaken from the horrors of the nightmare which are all too real.
Consequently, there will be many who will beckon you to go back to sleep and that you will
feel much better when the transformation is all over and you too have become an alien in
human form.
Just like
the heroes and heroines of the movies, you are engaged in life and death struggle for your
spiritual survival. If you go to sleep too deeply and for too long a period of time, you
may very well spiritually die. If, with God's grace and the assistance of those whom God
has appointed to serve this purpose, you struggle to wake up, then you have the chance to
stay human and resist becoming alien to your essential Self.
One of your
problems is that you don't know which movie, so to speak, you are in. Are you
participating in the original version where the hero - in this case, hopefully, you -
finally convinces the authorities (that is, your intelligence and motivational capacities)
that steps must be taken to avert the tragedy which is threatening human existence
(namely, yours)? Or, are you in the re-make of the original version in which all may be in
the process of being lost to the onslaught of the alien invasion going on within you?
You are the
script writer, director, actress and producer of your film. The ending is yours to choose.
Be very
clear, however, that your film is not about fiction. It is real, and it is unfolding
before your eyes - both internally and externally, both spiritually and physically.
To borrow
from another film, Lawrence of Arabia, I am reminded of the words which Omar Sherif's
character says to the Peter O'Toole character as they are crossing, I believe, the Nefu
desert, where to go to sleep can mean death. "Be warned, you were drifting", the
Arab friend cautions Lawrence as the latter is caught napping while riding his camel.
A similar
caution could be directed to you: 'Be warned, you are drifting'. Your emotional state is
evidence of this.
You cannot
afford to go to sleep, or you risk losing everything of value, even if your physical life
remains intact. Wake up to the horror of the alien life form which is within you, and be
mindful of the dangers to spiritual life that are lurking all about you - any, and all, of
which can destroy you - as might be true of a person journeying across a physical desert.
Hold tightly
to the hand of friendship which is being extended. On the Path, we need company to help
keep us awake and alert to the dangers which are hiding in the night and waiting to pounce
upon us should we relax our vigilance and forget the purpose and destination for which we
have undertaken the journey.
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